I have Fandango to thank for this title – he has been posting regularly on this subject from his west-coast-USA vantage point. I am interested in current affairs too, and normally have some nonsense or other to spout about one of the UK’s topical news stories. So, I like to join in. Maybe there’s something in your world that you’d like to post about?
Well, over the last two weeks the Australian Open tennis tournament has been happening, so I must first extend my congratulations to Sofia Kenin and Novak Djokovic, who won the women’s and men’s singles titles respectively. And, not a bad result it is at all, with the winners cashing cheques for over AUD 4 million (that’s about GBP 2.25 million, EUR 2.6 million, or not far short of USD 3 million). The runners-up didn’t do too badly either – receiving AUD 2 million. Somebody who “just” won the doubles competition walked away with AUD 750,000, while even someone who didn’t win at all (knocked out in the first round of qualifying) received AUD 20,000. Not a bad day at the office, eh? The total prize pot for the tournament was a staggering AUD 71 million.
But none of the players was my winner of the week.
The Australian Open is run by Tennis Australia, and because of that, they are my winners this week. The Open brings in a decent amount of cash for them, at least AUD 71 million, just to cover the prize money alone. In fact, Tennis Australia published an income of almost AUD350 million in their latest accounts – most of which, fair enough, is spent promoting tennis in Australia. They are a good bet – only last year development started on a new tennis stadium at the Melbourne Park venue, at a total cost of AUD 270 million. So you might say that they are doing well for themselves and for their sport.
It’s great to see the tennis community enjoying itself, and presumably the sport is flourishing there as a result. In any case, there was not much other news this week, except maybe that Friday, the Canberra region declared a State of Emergency because of the bushfires. Canberra to Melbourne is about 450 miles (650km).
Now, please, don’t get me wrong. I’m not passing judgement on the sport of tennis, in fact in years gone by I have enjoyed watching it myself. Plus, Tennis Australia have pledged to help people affected by bushfires to the tune of a very generous AUD 6 million. I just wanted to highlight how such splendour can exist, just a stone’s throw from such devastation, and just leave it to you to draw your conclusions. And to judge for your$elve$ whether the world ha$ it$ prioritie$ $et right.
